The Spiritual Pearl of the Northwest

Quite a caption, isn't it?

I am not a religious person and I took part of a lovely weekend photo-travel to the beautiful Klisursky Monastery in the Northwestern part of Bulgaria some time ago because I was sharing this trip with some friends who are also photography lovers.

It has a gorgeous Orthodox Christian church maintained by the humble nuns, a residential part where everyone who wants could stay for a night, or two, a small church shop, full of interesting items and the so called "Magernitza", that's a place where one could eat, like a restaurant but build in traditional style also having specific dishes, cooked by the monks.

Many say the place has healing powers and I would agree as I felt a positive energy there during our weekend. This is how the residential part looks from the hill where the church is established:

"The Spiritual Pearl of the Northwest" - one could see that entering the church yard, just in front of the shop:

The foods and drinks they offer there are manufactured... wait, "made" is much better in this case, by the nuns. I got and tried few things, all absolutely delicious - raspberry wine, monastery honey and pumpkin jam. Good there was no "BIO" on the label as the other "BIO" stuff sold at the huge stores would taste ridiculously compared to these natural and hand-made products ;)

Partial view of the "St. Cyril and St. Methodius" church with one of the nuns supporting it:

Time here passes in quite a different way and is hard to measure:

This place is also well known by its amazing iconography. I was deeply impressed by the patience of those nuns and the amazing tiny perfect details they've been focused on.

One of the nuns, too sad I forgot her name, I could've see here everywhere - cleaning the church, arranging stuff in the yard, painting icons, always rushing somewhere... I was happy to have her stop for a moment and this black and white portrait in front of the book shelf:

While painting they utilize an interesting technique - they use a special wooden vertical stick to stabilize their hands. Check out how fine their art is:

Last but not least, there was a joyful tiny improvised zoo next to the Magernitza with few beautiful ponies, dogs and some poultry.

I have more of those colorful and beautiful photos from there to show so to be continued...

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Copyright: Damian Hadjiyvanov, Light Captured

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My photo site: https://hadjiyvanov.com/

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Have a great photo! :P

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